[Commlist] Media Mutations International Conference CFP: “Audiovisual Data: Data-Driven Perspectives for Media Studies”

Media Mutations International Conference – “Audiovisual Data: 
Data-Driven Perspectives for Media Studies”

Department of the Arts, University of Bologna (Italy) – DAMSLab, 6th-7th 
October 2022

Organized by Giorgio Avezzù and Marta Rocchi
In collaboration with Mirko Degli Esposti and Guglielmo Pescatore

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Monika Bednarek, Professor in Linguistics at the University of Sydney, 
Australia
Makarand Tapaswi, Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Wadhwani AI and 
Assistant Professor at the Computer Vision group at IIIT Hyderabad, India

Media Mutations is an international conference on contemporary 
audiovisual media hosted by the Department of the Arts of Università di 
Bologna. The event has now reached its 13th edition. This year focus is 
on datafication of audiovisual media content and audiences, and on 
data-driven methods and methodologies for the study of films and TV series.
Quantitative perspectives applied to narrative audiovisual texts and 
consumption have not been absent in the history of film and media 
studies, but they have often been received with some resistance from 
proponents of more traditional approaches. However, in recent years, 
influential researchers’ initiatives have highlighted both an 
opportunity to explore the potential of these studies and a gap between 
the possibilities of digital data and computational tools and their 
application in media studies. Nowadays, as data analytics and artificial 
intelligence strategies have gained importance in many areas of the 
media industries, the number of data-driven studies have also increased 
and gained traction in the academic debate and in the wider field of 
film, media and sound studies. Indeed, several methodological lines of 
inquiry have been developed to discover patterns, trends, or 
characteristics of audiovisual products, such as processing textual 
objects through multimodal approaches, social discursivity through 
automated software or evaluating production and consumption processes 
through social network analysis and modelling techniques. All these 
research projects are based on specific tools for the collection and 
analysis of audiovisual media data through statistical and modelling tools.
Drawing on these considerations, the conference aims to bring attention 
to and promote discussion on systematic methods to conduct data-driven 
research in film and media studies. The conference intends to be an 
opportunity both to investigate what we can do with data, and the 
analytical and interpretative possibilities at stake, and to reflect on 
what data can be (and what kind of data we must deal with), to 
problematize the possible limits of such approaches to the study of 
audiovisual narrative media.
We welcome any contributions that employ the use of data-driven tools 
for collecting, sampling, analysing, and modelling audiovisual content 
and data. In line with its founding purposes, the conference wishes to 
serve as a basis for discussing methods and methodologies, sharing 
research results, and promoting a multi-disciplinary approach.

Media Mutations 13 encourages submissions that apply data-driven methods 
for the study of films and TV series. Areas of interest include, but are 
not limited to:
* Quantitative content analysis
* Text analysis and machine learning (e.g., topic modelling, natural 
language processing) for:
-character recognition
-dialogue analysis
-screenplay summarization
-semantic video analysis
-scene segmentation
-emotional arc classification
* Network analysis and visualization of audiovisual data
* Qualitative and quantitative modelling in film and media studies
* Media data for creativity: automatic generation of narrative 
audiovisual content
* Audiovisual data for production and distribution purposes:
-product development and decision-making in media industries
-VOD platforms
-personalization and recommender systems
* Audiovisual data for consumption and reception analysis:
-media audiences and metrics
-data about theatrical audience
-social media engagement
* Audiovisual databases: digital filmographic databases and web scraping 
(e.g., IMDb)
* Audiovisual data and archival research
* Media data, society, and culture: impact of audiovisual media on 
cultural trends, attitudes, and behaviors on both local and global scales.

The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts (300-500 
words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to 
(mediamutations.org /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(mediamutations.org /at/ gmail.com)> by 
16th June 2022. Please attach a brief biography (maximum 150 words) and 
an optional selected bibliography (up to five titles) relevant to the 
conference theme. The conference will be held in a hybrid form. Please 
indicate in your proposal whether you prefer to participate in-person or 
online. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 16th July 2022. A 
registration fee will be requested after notification of paper 
acceptance (€80 for speakers and professional attendants).
This Conference is promoted by Media Mutations Association and 
financially supported by DAMSLab and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università 
di Bologna, in collaboration with Centro Dipartimentale La Soffitta.
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